Thoughts on Into the Dalek
Thoughts on Doctor Who 8x02 - Into the Dalek
Well, helloooo Season Eight. Nice to see you kicking into gear after that last mess of an episode.
Holy shit did I like this episode. It was very reminiscent of the first season’s episode, Dalek, but it managed to play with its main themes in a way that still made it very unique. And honestly, as soon as I saw Phil Ford’s name in the writing credits, I knew that I was in for something good.
As a recap for anyone who’s not super obsessed with all things Doctor Who writing staff, Phil Ford is RTD’s goto second-in-command writer, much like how Mark Gatiss has become Steven Moffat’s number two. He’s essentially spear-helmed both the Sarah Jane Adventures and Wizards vs Aliens, both shows that I terribly adore. His stories carry such wonderful emotional depth and sincerity, something that I’ve been finding increasingly lacking in Steven Moffat’s work of the past several years.
I always wondered what a writing merger between RTD and Steven Moffat would produce, and this is probably the closest we’ll ever get to it.
And damn did it pay off.
We open with a cold intro. Honestly, if it hadn’t been for a couple of GIF spoilers, I wasn’t sure whether she’d live to see the other side of the opening credits. Doctor Who has become rather fond of killing off random characters at the beginning of episodes.
I rather like how Clara is just NOT IN the first five minutes of the episode and that we get an extended look at a bit of her life before she and the Doctor cross paths. This is how you show, not tell. This makes me believe that, yes, Clara does indeed have a life outside the Doctor and only travels with him on Wednesday.
My only complaint is that it’s done at the expense of introducing a love interest for her, implying that time spent with just Clara is only useful as long as we’re setting up another male character, but that is honestly a small quibble.
Loud-mouthed teen makes an appearance, which is always nice for continuity.
The editing in the scene where Danny Pink blows his conversation with Clara was a bit jarring, but overall I think it worked. Gotta love a man who headdesks.
Still not exactly sure why he wanted Clara with him on this particularly dark and dangerous mission. Especially since he went out of his way to pick her up. At first I thought he was going to pick her brain about her own personal time as a “good dalek.” You have no idea how much of the episode I was waiting for either of them to bring it up. If I had any serious letdowns about Into the Dalek, it was that. Such a missed opportunity.
Another thing I really liked was Journey Blue’s attitude towards everything. Not because she was nice or optimistic by any stretch of the imagination, but because it was solid and consistent and made perfect sense within the context we’ve seen her so far. When Clara tries to make some friendly banter, Journey shuts her down with a “my brother just died kthx.” Rock on, Journey.
But yeah, in a nice bit of earlier foreshadowing, the Doctor, Clara, Journey, and a couple of red shirts shrink down and hop on in.
I just want to say, who the fuck harpoons the inside a Dalek? I’m sorry, even if you’re not a Dalek bio-electrical engineer, you’re still at war with them. You just found out it’s half-living, half-machine. Why are you poking holes in it? The Doctor was a bit callous, but yeah. Dead man walking.
The escape sequence down the chute and subsequent floundering in corpse-y much was totally a callback to The Beast Below. I half-expected the music to start playing (although they had used it in last week’s trailer.)
Also Clara, honey. I know you’ve gotta look pretty and filming takes a long time and fuck continuity, but damn gurl. Your hair dries waaaaaay too fast.
I still can’t believe that NO ONE was prepared for the eventuality of the Dalek turning evil again once they fixed it. Like I’m not even harping on base people since whatever, they can be clueless. But Doctor. Doctor. YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER.
Doctor: “There was never a good Dalek. There was a broken Dalek and we repaired it.”
Doctor: “It was a Dalek, what did you expect.”
Clara: “The Dalek’s are evil after all. Everything makes sense. The Doctor is right!”
Holy shit. This dialogue. Right here. So much fucking love.
And you know what, fuck it. It’s never outright stated so who knows what the writer’s intended, but I am head canoning that Clara remembers everything of her Impossible Girl lives. She remembers being a Dalek, overcoming her programming, and helping the Doctor escape the Asylum. And she is pissed off both that the Doctor forgot that a “good dalek” is something that’s existed in the past and that he’s being so close-minded and binary about the whole thing in general.
And it makes SO MUCH SENSE emotionally from where both these characters are coming. Despite whatever shenanigans are being written/unwritten with the Time War, the Daleks are responsible for the destruction of both his people and so many thousands of other races. They’ve come back time and time again. He’s the Doctor, he wants to seem open-minded, but it’s so so easy to just pay lip service to the thought while harboring own biases and bitterness.
THIS IS HOW YOU CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. NOT BY RAMBLING OFF RANDOM TRAITS AND QUIRKS LIKE “PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVENESS” AND “CONTROL FREAK,” BUT BY HAVING AN HONEST TO GOD HEART TO HEART.
I just need Phil Ford to latch onto Steven Moffat for the remainder of his run, like a symbiotic leech of writing goodness.
Journey: “Are you out of your mind?!”
Doctor: “No, I’m inside a Dalek!”
Best quip of the episode.
Damn, Clara. You’ve got some hidden climbing skills.
Also just want to point this out because it’s something that’s gotten really increasingly obvious with every episode Moffat keeps writing, but his companions rarely take active roles in his episodes’ climaxes. Like last week, yes, Vastra and Jenny and Clara were fighting, but it was really the Doctor responsible for taking care of the head robot. Bells of St. John? Clara gets uploaded before the final confrontation. Snowmen? Clara dies. Asylum of the Daleks? Amy and Rory don’t really do anything; it’s on Clara who’s not a companion yet, so it’s a kind of half and half. Wedding of River Song? All the Doctor.
Anyways, hooray! Companion gets to do something in the climax that actually affects the plot! Please give me more of this Doctor Who writers.
And then it’s time to say farewell to Gretchen Alison Carlisle. We barely knew ya.
It is a very nice death though, considering her predetermined red shirt status. Of course, her fifteen seconds of fame was probably just so that we could care a bit more at the resulting heaven sequence.
Part of me doesn’t even want to hypothesize because who the fuck knows anymore when it comes to Moffat story arcs, but hell with it. My guesses so far.
I don’t really want it to be an original character, although there is a very good chance it is. I still want the Master back. The first two episodes of the three-part Season Three finale are still probably my favorite two episodes in the whole New Series. The foreshadowing and climatic buildup was just THAT GOOD. Moffat has written a gender-swapped version of Doctor/Master, so it’s completely possible. The cons? I just don’t see Moffat going in that direction. At least not played straight.
As for “heaven”. It exists across time and space, but honestly that could be anything. River’s planet database seemed to exist across time and space. So is it saving a spiritual imprint? An electrical one? Honestly, the internet is putting way more thought into this than he ever will, so I’m not sure why I’m even trying to bother physics-ing it all out.
Also, kind of random, but one thing bothered me about the Doctor naming the dalek “Rusty”. It’s too similar to the 11th Doctor naming his cyberman head “Handles.” It’s an 11th Doctor quirk being written for the 12th Doctor. This episode was much, much better than Deep Breath, but I’m still waiting for the 12th Doctor to really discover his own voice.
Moving on, Clara is pro-active, The Doctor smacks a couple cables around, he tries to show the Dalek the universe, and it focuses in on the Doctor’s hate. It proceeded to go on a killing rampage and congratulates the Doctor on victory.
Dalek (to the Doctor): “You are a good Dalek.”
Pretty much a quote by quote replay of ”You would make a good Dalek.” from the episode Dalek, but you know what? I don’t care. If taking from RTD material makes for good Doctor Who, take away. (Just remember where you got it from.)
But yeah, to sum up the rest of this. Even though it’s been touched on before, I love the focus on the Doctor’s hate and how it is this destructive force and how that is ultimately a BAD THING.
Doctor: “Soldiers take orders.”
Journey: “I am a soldier.”
Doctor: “A Dalek is a better soldier than you will ever be.”
Violence is not always the solution. Violence only leads to more violence. There is always a non-violent solution that is equal or sometimes superior to the violent one.
We’ve heard the message a thousand times and, yes, they can get cheesy.
It keeps going around that Twelve is a dark Doctor and Season Eight is to be a darker season, and when Deep Breath happened with the Doctor abandoning Clara and the ambiguous “suicide or murder?” ending, I nearly groaned. Moffat was trying to be Dark and Edgy.
But this?
You have the Doctor losing hope, turning instantly on a dime when the Dalek reverts to its original state, proclaiming all was for nothing and burying himself within his own hate and prejudice. You have Clara dragging him back up. You have them both doing their damn well hardest to change just this one Dalek because that means everything in the universe. You have that brief moment of success. The Dalek sees the birth of a star. It sees the universe.
And then it sees the Doctor’s hatred.
No one else in the episode dies. The humans have a new highly effective weapon to use in their war. All in all, the heroes were “victorious.”
But of course they weren’t. You feel the Doctor’s hollowness. The wasted potential of what could’ve been. All because of the hatred that the Doctor couldn’t let go off. Will probably never let go of.
And that is how you make an episode dark.
I feel if it’d ended any other way, the Doctor would’ve taken Journey aboard. At least for a little spin if nothing else. But the Doctor’s isn’t having any more of that shit today. The episode ends with a nice little bookend of Clara and Danny, and then it’s time for the next ep’s trailer!
It’s a period piece! And it’s not Victorian London! It’s still Britain! But it’s Robin Hood! And robot knights! And Robin Hood!
Oh please let the actual episode be as entertaining as the trailer.
Well, helloooo Season Eight. Nice to see you kicking into gear after that last mess of an episode.
Holy shit did I like this episode. It was very reminiscent of the first season’s episode, Dalek, but it managed to play with its main themes in a way that still made it very unique. And honestly, as soon as I saw Phil Ford’s name in the writing credits, I knew that I was in for something good.
As a recap for anyone who’s not super obsessed with all things Doctor Who writing staff, Phil Ford is RTD’s goto second-in-command writer, much like how Mark Gatiss has become Steven Moffat’s number two. He’s essentially spear-helmed both the Sarah Jane Adventures and Wizards vs Aliens, both shows that I terribly adore. His stories carry such wonderful emotional depth and sincerity, something that I’ve been finding increasingly lacking in Steven Moffat’s work of the past several years.
I always wondered what a writing merger between RTD and Steven Moffat would produce, and this is probably the closest we’ll ever get to it.
And damn did it pay off.
We open with a cold intro. Honestly, if it hadn’t been for a couple of GIF spoilers, I wasn’t sure whether she’d live to see the other side of the opening credits. Doctor Who has become rather fond of killing off random characters at the beginning of episodes.
I rather like how Clara is just NOT IN the first five minutes of the episode and that we get an extended look at a bit of her life before she and the Doctor cross paths. This is how you show, not tell. This makes me believe that, yes, Clara does indeed have a life outside the Doctor and only travels with him on Wednesday.
My only complaint is that it’s done at the expense of introducing a love interest for her, implying that time spent with just Clara is only useful as long as we’re setting up another male character, but that is honestly a small quibble.
Loud-mouthed teen makes an appearance, which is always nice for continuity.
The editing in the scene where Danny Pink blows his conversation with Clara was a bit jarring, but overall I think it worked. Gotta love a man who headdesks.
Still not exactly sure why he wanted Clara with him on this particularly dark and dangerous mission. Especially since he went out of his way to pick her up. At first I thought he was going to pick her brain about her own personal time as a “good dalek.” You have no idea how much of the episode I was waiting for either of them to bring it up. If I had any serious letdowns about Into the Dalek, it was that. Such a missed opportunity.
Another thing I really liked was Journey Blue’s attitude towards everything. Not because she was nice or optimistic by any stretch of the imagination, but because it was solid and consistent and made perfect sense within the context we’ve seen her so far. When Clara tries to make some friendly banter, Journey shuts her down with a “my brother just died kthx.” Rock on, Journey.
But yeah, in a nice bit of earlier foreshadowing, the Doctor, Clara, Journey, and a couple of red shirts shrink down and hop on in.
I just want to say, who the fuck harpoons the inside a Dalek? I’m sorry, even if you’re not a Dalek bio-electrical engineer, you’re still at war with them. You just found out it’s half-living, half-machine. Why are you poking holes in it? The Doctor was a bit callous, but yeah. Dead man walking.
The escape sequence down the chute and subsequent floundering in corpse-y much was totally a callback to The Beast Below. I half-expected the music to start playing (although they had used it in last week’s trailer.)
Also Clara, honey. I know you’ve gotta look pretty and filming takes a long time and fuck continuity, but damn gurl. Your hair dries waaaaaay too fast.
I still can’t believe that NO ONE was prepared for the eventuality of the Dalek turning evil again once they fixed it. Like I’m not even harping on base people since whatever, they can be clueless. But Doctor. Doctor. YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER.
Doctor: “There was never a good Dalek. There was a broken Dalek and we repaired it.”
Doctor: “It was a Dalek, what did you expect.”
Clara: “The Dalek’s are evil after all. Everything makes sense. The Doctor is right!”
Holy shit. This dialogue. Right here. So much fucking love.
And you know what, fuck it. It’s never outright stated so who knows what the writer’s intended, but I am head canoning that Clara remembers everything of her Impossible Girl lives. She remembers being a Dalek, overcoming her programming, and helping the Doctor escape the Asylum. And she is pissed off both that the Doctor forgot that a “good dalek” is something that’s existed in the past and that he’s being so close-minded and binary about the whole thing in general.
And it makes SO MUCH SENSE emotionally from where both these characters are coming. Despite whatever shenanigans are being written/unwritten with the Time War, the Daleks are responsible for the destruction of both his people and so many thousands of other races. They’ve come back time and time again. He’s the Doctor, he wants to seem open-minded, but it’s so so easy to just pay lip service to the thought while harboring own biases and bitterness.
THIS IS HOW YOU CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. NOT BY RAMBLING OFF RANDOM TRAITS AND QUIRKS LIKE “PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVENESS” AND “CONTROL FREAK,” BUT BY HAVING AN HONEST TO GOD HEART TO HEART.
I just need Phil Ford to latch onto Steven Moffat for the remainder of his run, like a symbiotic leech of writing goodness.
Journey: “Are you out of your mind?!”
Doctor: “No, I’m inside a Dalek!”
Best quip of the episode.
Damn, Clara. You’ve got some hidden climbing skills.
Also just want to point this out because it’s something that’s gotten really increasingly obvious with every episode Moffat keeps writing, but his companions rarely take active roles in his episodes’ climaxes. Like last week, yes, Vastra and Jenny and Clara were fighting, but it was really the Doctor responsible for taking care of the head robot. Bells of St. John? Clara gets uploaded before the final confrontation. Snowmen? Clara dies. Asylum of the Daleks? Amy and Rory don’t really do anything; it’s on Clara who’s not a companion yet, so it’s a kind of half and half. Wedding of River Song? All the Doctor.
Anyways, hooray! Companion gets to do something in the climax that actually affects the plot! Please give me more of this Doctor Who writers.
And then it’s time to say farewell to Gretchen Alison Carlisle. We barely knew ya.
It is a very nice death though, considering her predetermined red shirt status. Of course, her fifteen seconds of fame was probably just so that we could care a bit more at the resulting heaven sequence.
Part of me doesn’t even want to hypothesize because who the fuck knows anymore when it comes to Moffat story arcs, but hell with it. My guesses so far.
I don’t really want it to be an original character, although there is a very good chance it is. I still want the Master back. The first two episodes of the three-part Season Three finale are still probably my favorite two episodes in the whole New Series. The foreshadowing and climatic buildup was just THAT GOOD. Moffat has written a gender-swapped version of Doctor/Master, so it’s completely possible. The cons? I just don’t see Moffat going in that direction. At least not played straight.
As for “heaven”. It exists across time and space, but honestly that could be anything. River’s planet database seemed to exist across time and space. So is it saving a spiritual imprint? An electrical one? Honestly, the internet is putting way more thought into this than he ever will, so I’m not sure why I’m even trying to bother physics-ing it all out.
Also, kind of random, but one thing bothered me about the Doctor naming the dalek “Rusty”. It’s too similar to the 11th Doctor naming his cyberman head “Handles.” It’s an 11th Doctor quirk being written for the 12th Doctor. This episode was much, much better than Deep Breath, but I’m still waiting for the 12th Doctor to really discover his own voice.
Moving on, Clara is pro-active, The Doctor smacks a couple cables around, he tries to show the Dalek the universe, and it focuses in on the Doctor’s hate. It proceeded to go on a killing rampage and congratulates the Doctor on victory.
Dalek (to the Doctor): “You are a good Dalek.”
Pretty much a quote by quote replay of ”You would make a good Dalek.” from the episode Dalek, but you know what? I don’t care. If taking from RTD material makes for good Doctor Who, take away. (Just remember where you got it from.)
But yeah, to sum up the rest of this. Even though it’s been touched on before, I love the focus on the Doctor’s hate and how it is this destructive force and how that is ultimately a BAD THING.
Doctor: “Soldiers take orders.”
Journey: “I am a soldier.”
Doctor: “A Dalek is a better soldier than you will ever be.”
Violence is not always the solution. Violence only leads to more violence. There is always a non-violent solution that is equal or sometimes superior to the violent one.
We’ve heard the message a thousand times and, yes, they can get cheesy.
It keeps going around that Twelve is a dark Doctor and Season Eight is to be a darker season, and when Deep Breath happened with the Doctor abandoning Clara and the ambiguous “suicide or murder?” ending, I nearly groaned. Moffat was trying to be Dark and Edgy.
But this?
You have the Doctor losing hope, turning instantly on a dime when the Dalek reverts to its original state, proclaiming all was for nothing and burying himself within his own hate and prejudice. You have Clara dragging him back up. You have them both doing their damn well hardest to change just this one Dalek because that means everything in the universe. You have that brief moment of success. The Dalek sees the birth of a star. It sees the universe.
And then it sees the Doctor’s hatred.
No one else in the episode dies. The humans have a new highly effective weapon to use in their war. All in all, the heroes were “victorious.”
But of course they weren’t. You feel the Doctor’s hollowness. The wasted potential of what could’ve been. All because of the hatred that the Doctor couldn’t let go off. Will probably never let go of.
And that is how you make an episode dark.
I feel if it’d ended any other way, the Doctor would’ve taken Journey aboard. At least for a little spin if nothing else. But the Doctor’s isn’t having any more of that shit today. The episode ends with a nice little bookend of Clara and Danny, and then it’s time for the next ep’s trailer!
It’s a period piece! And it’s not Victorian London! It’s still Britain! But it’s Robin Hood! And robot knights! And Robin Hood!
Oh please let the actual episode be as entertaining as the trailer.